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Syncretically Honoring Apollon and Shiva

Though I have a page on my blog devoted to the syncretism of Apollon and Shiva, I noticed that I have never addressed on my blog how this plays out in my life. This is keeping in mind that my worship of Shiva and Paravati is something that has only been slowly seeping in over the last several months. Albeit I have been feeling a nudge to explore in that direction for a while. I have always felt it was a bit strange that I never felt entirely compelled to explore his Khemetic syncretism, nor those of other cultures. After all, the subject of *where* Apollon came from into Hellenic worship has always been a subject of fascination in scholarly works, and you have hypothesis of varying kinds which attribute his origins to Egypt, to near Asia, and even to the North in accordance to his mythical genealogy connecting him to Hyperborea. But for some reason syncretism just didn’t seem like that important of a topic to get all tangled in. So it seemed almost a “rude” disturbance to find oneself being thrust with a compellation to learn about Shiva. It wasn’t a conscious decision on my part, but rather more of nagging impulse in the back of my mind. This gave rise to research, and the development of my syncretism of Apollon and Shiva, and of Artemis with Paravati/Kali as I speak of on the page linked at the top of this blog.

I have found though that being a syncretic isn’t as problematic as I thought it would be. It is essentially a process of training myself in two, though revealing themselves to be more and more closely related, religious traditions. But in doing so I have found that the best method is to not blend their imagery together into one massive altar, but to have multiple altars through the household. Thus I offer Hellenic prayers and libations to Apollon and have begun doing appropriate Hindu prayers (though simple at this point) and offerings to Shiva. It almost seems redundant is some ways, especially with the offering over the black agyieus stone for Apollon, and the offering over the shivalinga for Shiva, but I have found this an enjoyable and reasonable way to practice my syncretism. Even the incenses I use for these altars are so similar that they rise in a perfect sweet blend. As I pray to Shiva who dances the passage of time, I honor Apollon who with his lyre played to his stepping dance issues the passage of seasons. And as I offer to Helios at the altar of Apollon at the doorway, so too before my prayer to Shiva I make offering to Surya in the morning.

I have found it to be a spiritually harmonic religious lifestyle, that brings me great peace and contentment. It brings me joy recognizing this other form, elder form in most probability, of my god whom Arkadians called among the first of the gods. Hail to you sweetly perfumed king, you who delight in high mountains, pouring out over the world your endless light, lord of truth, king destroyer, turner of time.